While organizing my mouthpiece drawer, I decided to do a comparison of the various Bari and Bass mouthpieces.
From Left to Right – Bari Pieces: #1 Tibbs, #2 Yamaha 5*, #3 Bilger, #4 Runyon 88, # 5 Rico Metalite, #6 Otto Link.
Bass Pieces: #7 Selmer, #8 Keilwerth. The Keilwerth came with a cap engraved “Zinner”
Hi Glenn.
Thanks so much for this interesting post. Could you tell us more about your experiences with these pieces? I’m wondering which bari pieces you’ve tried on your Keilwerth SX-90, and how they responded. Which worked; which didn’t.
What reed/mouthpiece combo do you regularly play on your bass?
BTW, I wouldn’t be surprised if JK went with Zinner for their bass mouthpieces. It would make total sense. Many players I know swear by their Zinner bass sax mouthpieces. Apparently they are among the best in the world.
My Medusa bari came with a Zinner M/P. It is an amazing piece. I love it. I’ve been tempted to try other Zinner pieces, but the price point is a bit much for me, and they’re not readily available to try, which means they have to be custom ordered. I don’t want to necessarily buy a piece, I just want to see if it works for me. 😡
Oh well, I guess it’s another thing for me to add to my list of things to do when I go back to Germany. (The list is getting pretty long.) 😉
Hi Helen,
The Keilwerth was the piece that came with the horn. I always suspected that it was a Zinner I just noticed the engraving on the cap when I did this project. The previous owner of the Bass told me that the old Selmer piece was the one to play. I bought some Van Doren reeds when I first got the Bass ($$), and after trying the two pieces, I agree with the previous owner that the Selmer was the better player. At the time I was new to the Bass, and had to bring it in the shop 2x for minor adjustments to get it into playing shape.
After that I got the (modified for Bass) Runyon 88-7 per the article you published from Paul Coats. I liked that piece, and once I brought the Bass in for adjustment, everything played easily from Bb to high Eb. I use a 1.5 fibercell Bari reed. I did find that my air supply ran a bit short with the Runyon 88 – 7. I took your advice that I read here, and switched to a Bass modified Runyon 88 -5. My goal is to have a free blowing pieces that easily plays the range of the instrument and in tune.
On the Bari, I like the Runyon Custom -8 (not pictured as it was in the case when I started this project) or the inexpensive Metalite. The only problem I have with the Metalite is that the upper register plays sharp on my MKVI Bari, so I use it on my Series II Bari, which tends to play quite flat (fibracell 2.5 reed).
Now that you mention it, I’ll give the 2 Bass pieces another try to see if things are different now that I’ve had the Bass a while.
Regards,
Glenn G
Hi, nice line-up.
It would be nice to add sound samples with the same melody for each of them
to hear how they compare soundwise.
Rgds,
Marc :saxy: :saxy: :saxy:
Hi Marc,
Thanks. At the present time, I’m not set up to record, but now that you mention it, it would be interesting to make a recording and listen to the different pieces.
My emphasis has been on finding the best piece that is free blowing, in tune, and one that projects a good sound. It would be interesting to record and listen to the sound that comes out of the horn.
Regards,
Glenn G